Gov. Paterson’s secret plan to sway state Senate Democrats holding out on an MTA bailout vote is to reimburse school districts that would have to pay the proposed payroll tax, The Post has learned.

Paterson, who on Wednesday cryptically mentioned a game-changing idea to break the political deadlock, would have the state repay the taxed districts from its general fund.

Reimbursing every school district in the 12-county MTA service region, including New York City, would cost about $60 million a year, sources said.

The proposal would act as an amendment to state Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith’s MTA-rescue bill, which is winding its way through the Senate and is supposed to be voted on next week.

Four suburban Democrats withholding support for the plan — Craig Johnson (Nassau), Brian Foley (Suffolk), Andrea Stewart-Cousins (W’chester) and Suzi Oppenheimer (W’chester) — are furious about the tax’s impact on school districts, one of the main employers in their areas.

Reimbursing the districts instead of exempting them from the tax is a backdoor way of giving more state money to the MTA while keeping the legislators happy.

“If you use the general fund to relieve school districts of the costs of the tax, the MTA still gets its money and schools get money back from the state,” a source said. “It doesn’t reduce the amount to MTA.”

But it’s uncertain whether Paterson’s compromise will turn the tide. He still doesn’t have assurances the four senators will support his new idea, sources said.

Democrats hold a razor-thin majority in the Senate and need all 32 votes from their party to be assured of passing a bill.

Other lawmakers also are concerned that Smith’s bill may not provide enough revenue to plug the MTA’s budget deficit, which has ballooned an additional $1.6 billion through 2010.

“In a strange way, the political question may not be the most important,” one source said. “The question is if they have enough money to do a complete program and not be back in the same place next year.”

Smith’s bill would levy a 33-cent tax on each $100 of an employer’s payroll in every MTA-serviced county but Putnam, Orange and Dutchess, where the rate would be 25 cents for every $100.

His plan also calls for a $1 surcharge on yellow-cab rides, and increasing fees for driver’s licenses and learner’s permits by as much as 30 percent. It would also hike car-registration fees by $25, and impose a sales tax on auto rentals of up to 5 percent.

Subway and bus fares would go up by just 8 percent, rather than the 23 percent set for May 31.